AIR
by Impkat
Summary: Air! He needed air! In sharp, ragged breaths he was able to get enough to stay conscious. To stay alive. Staring down he could see why he was unable to breath. Great, just great. Being real sucked and now he was probably dying.


Air! He needed air! In sharp, ragged breaths he was able to get enough to stay conscious. To stay alive. Staring down he could see why he was unable to breath. Right through the right side of his chest laid a dagger embedded into him. Great, just great. Being real sucked and now he was probably dying. Impmon stumbled against the wall before sliding down it. He grasped the dagger in an attempt to pull it out, but the pain was too immense. Doing this caused his body to spasm and lose track of his breathing, leaving him crumpled in a pained heap on the ground. Impmon could taste blood on his tongue as his vision blurred.

He mentally cursed, his friends were still out there fighting, and he was crumpled up here useless. Laying there in that state seemed to go on for what seemed to be eternity and he contemplated whether he should try and pull the dagger out as he concentrated on his breathing; it was getting harder and harder to get air to his lungs. Time seemed to be distorted and he vaguely remembered what was going on as he could feel himself drifting into the world of unconsciousness. As everything started to go black, the last thought he had been him wondering how the fight had turned out and if he was a goner.

The first thing he felt as the darkness faded away was the feeling of immense pain. Second, he could tell that he was barely breathing. As everything began to come back to him, he started to hear the sounds of panicked voices. Impmon blinked a few times as he regained consciousness.

"Impmon!" He looked up to see that everyone had circled him and had concerned looks upon their faces.

"Impmon-chan! Impmon-chan, you're awake! We thought you were dead!" His twin tamers cried, tears streaming down their faces. Each one was on either side of him, holding his hands. Okay, even though he was slightly embarrassed, unable to breath and in pain, at least he was still alive, for now. That was good, but he had upset everyone, which was the last thing that he wanted.

"Impmon, we've decided to take to back to Hypnos in hopes that they can help you there." Renamon told him, her voice the calmest of everyone's, of course. "The dagger needs to be removed more carefully than just pulling it out." Impmon gave a weak nod, trying not to move much.

"Hang in there, Hypnos isn't that far from here." Takato said, the others nodding in agreement and support. Impmon mustered as much breath and energy as he could before responding to the goggle head.

"D-Don't…be…so…s-sappy…I'm…fine…" He forced each word out, giving the twin's hands a squeeze. Warily he watched as his partners reluctantly left his side and Renamon came up beside him. It was then that Impmon had to cough, badly. Unable to control much other then his pathetic attempts to breath, he started coughing, only to cause the dagger to move in his chest. He cried out in pain as darkness overcame him once more.

Impmon couldn't move. That was the third thing he noticed, other than the usual pain and lack of air. There was also an annoying beeping sound. He let out a groan as consciousness came to him and he started to feel the full force of the pain. It was excruciating. Impmon's eyes shot open to an extremely bright light. He couldn't help but let out a weak scream as the pain crashed over him. Again, he tried to move, but to no avail. As his eyes adjusted to the blinding light he could see that there was something over his face, more specifically, his nose and mouth. Looking past that however he saw that several humans were standing over him, hands moving for the dagger in his chest.

"H-Hey! What….are….you…d-doing?!" Impmon yelled to the best of his ability. All of the humans seemed to ignore him except for the one who tightened what seemed to be vinyl straps that were wrapped around him from his head all the way down to his ankles. He heard the beeping begin to quicken as he struggled against the restraints. Click. Click.

"Calm down, Digimon. There's no need to panic. These doctors are here to help you get that knife out of your chest. Unfortunately, we are unable to administer any medication to help you through it due to the fact that we don't know if it would kill you." Impmon looked to his side the best he could to see the face of Yamaki flicking his lighter open and shut.

"Yamaki sir, you can't have a lighter near the equipment." One of the nameless doctors stated. Impmon screamed in agony, arching his back as much as he could, as two of the doctors pulled out the metal object. Everything temporarily went black as he fainted for a few minutes. As he awoke once again he could see the humans all crowding around his bleeding chest, busily at work at closing the wound. The heart monitor began to go ballistic once more as Impmon laid there wide eyed at his chest, blood everywhere and the tools moving in and out of his body. It was then that he could feel another coughing fit coming on. Turning his head to the side as much as possible he started to cough, causing not only extreme pain, but blood to splatter from his mouth and down his face. He could hear the doctors panicking above him as he slightly began to convulse on the table. The last thing Impmon heard was the beeping of the heart monitor as his eyes rolled to the back of his head.

_Still that annoying beeping. Why was that there? Oh yeah, I've just been through hell…_Really, not wanting to open his eyes, Impmon laid there for a little bit with his eyes shut. On the bright side, he was now able to breathe, albeit with pain. He could hear himself, in with air, out with the air. It was soothing. His ear twitched as he picked up other sounds around him. Someone else was breathing; he wasn't alone. He just hoped it wasn't another creepy doctor. Warily he opened his eyes to see that it was lit by a few lamps. It was night out. Looking around he could see that he was in a white bed in a fairly white room. Finally his eyes landed on the forms sleeping almost on top of him. His tamers, Ai and Makoto.

"I am glad to see that you are awake at last, Impmon." Startled, he turned to see that Renamon had entered the room. The heart monitor picked up speed.

"Don't scare me like that." He sighed, removing the mask from his face. Impmon grimaced as he tried to prop himself up.

"You need to rest. You lost a lot of blood." Renamon silently walked over and scooped the twins up as to not wake them and brought them over to their make-shift futons at the end of Impmon's rest bed. He watched as she tucked them in and came back over to him. "The doctors also said that you should keep your mask on. You need to breathe deeply so your lung doesn't get infected." Impmon gave her one of his classic smirks and replied,

"Since when do I do what I'm told?" Ignoring his usual demeanor, Renamon gently propped Impmon up and pulled the mask back over his mouth and nose. He firmly bit his lip from pain as Renamon began to undress his wound. "Now what… are you doing?" He asked her, not quite sure why she would need to take the bandages off.

"The dressings need to be renewed every few hours," She explained calmly, "Do not worry; I have been doing this for you for a while now." Impmon gave a light blush which was very noticeable on his white face.

"Oh…..T-thanks…I guess…" He muttered, looking away from her. As Renamon walked away to go get more bandages, the curious imp that he was looked down to inspect his stitched up chest. There was a decent sized gash that was stitched together, it was pretty swollen and red, but otherwise looked like it would be healing pretty nicely. He started to go to poke the wound only to have Renamon grab his hand and pull it away.

"Are you a masochist now, Impmon?" She asked him jokingly, causing him to pout slightly. He turned away, blushing once more as she finished dressing his wound. With his left hand, Impmon scratched the back of his head.

"So, uh, how long am I supposed to be laying here?" Renamon sighed, knowing that he wasn't going to like the answer.

"It will be at least a few weeks for you to make a full recovery." Impmon's eyes grew wide upon hearing the news.

"WHA- OOWW!" He yelled, causing a large amount of pain to flow through his chest and he flew back against the bed. Renamon, startled, rushed to his aid as he laid there grimacing, trying not to grab for the wound.

"Impmon-chan!" He heard as the pain slowly subdued from his laying still. Renamon took a step back as Impmon's twin tamers ran over to him, clinging onto his arms.

"H-Hey guys. Ung…" He winced as he shifted to get more comfortable around the twins. Ai, who was on his left side, buried her face into his fur.

"Yamaki said that we almost lost you during the surgery." Makoto told him, the memory shinning in his eyes.

"We were so scared, Impmon-chan." Ai mumbled from the left side of his chest. Impmon smirked back at them.  
"Lose me? Come on guys, I ain't going anywhere, anytime soon." He declared, giving their shoulders a light squeeze.

-One week later, back at Impmon's tamer's house-

"Whyyyyyy? It's so nice out, can't I at least go walk around the backyard a little?" Impmon whined, ruffling the fur on his head. It had been what seemed like months since he had been able to get out of the house, let alone his make-shift bed. Unfortunately, his partners were only able to entertain him for so long. He wasn't meant to be stuck in one place for too long. It was against his nature. To make matters worse, Ai and Makoto were at school and he was stuck here, bored out of his mind. Impmon blinked in surprise as he heard a knock at the door. "Er….Come in?" Renamon stepped inside the room, walked over and knelt down next to him.

"Hello, Impmon, how are you feeling?" She asked him as she helped to prop him up. Impmon gave an irritated sigh.

"It's awful. I'm bored as hell and my chest is killing me. What are you doing here, Foxy?" He asked her, still blinking in confusion and surprise.

"I'm just here to make sure that you are doing well." She responded, handing him a cup of tea that she had brought in with her. "Here, drink this; it will help you to breathe deeply so you don't get an infection." Impmon stared at her for a little bit before nodding. As he drank the tea he couldn't help but notice that Renamon had sat rather close to him, which was unlike her. Usually she sat against a wall or in a corner to observe everything. _How odd…_Instead of asking her, he simply decided to ignore it for the time being and get to the question that had been bugging him for a while now.

"So…..You bring any snacks?" Renamon simply rolled her eyes and gave the obvious reply of "No." He gave a sigh and pouted, he figured that would be the answer. Renamon stared at him for a few minutes of silence before speaking up.

"Impmon, I just wanted to say, thank you. For taking the dagger for me back in that fight. It would have been me in your position or worse if you hadn't tackled Astamon." To the absolute surprise of Impmon, Renamon leaned down and pressed her lips to his.

He had never blushed so hard in his life.


End file.
